Set uses advanced mathematics and new polyhedrons to return the results of healing potions with one die.
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Gyld's new Healing Potion Dice are single polyhedral dice that return results in a normal (Gaussian) distribution according to the results of healing potions in Dungeons & Dragons. That is one die each for 2d4 + 2, 4d4 + 4, 8d4 + 8 and 10d4 + 20 for the four different potencies of healing potion in the game.
Healing Potions are a common item in sessions of Dungeons and Dragons, the world's most popular role playing game. Players take damage during battle, and quickly chug the potion to regain hit-points. The amount of hit-points regained is determined by a dice-roll—but how many to roll and the bonus number for each size almost always requires looking up the rule. "No matter how many times I use a Healing Potion in my game, I always have to double check how many dice to roll," Says James Bates-Reich, who designed the dice. "There's not even a consistent pattern to follow."
Creating a single die that returns the same results as rolling multiple dice is extremely complicated: rolling multiple dice returns results along a curve. A normal 4-sided-die, or D4, has the same 25% chance to land on any number, where as rolling 2d4 will return a range from 2–8 where 5 appears 25% of the time and 2 or 8 only 6.25%.
"We thought this was going to be pretty easy, but when we started looking for formulas, or physics engines, to determine what shape to use we realized this math didn't exist." Says Al McWilliams, Gyld's Co-Founder. "We tried a bunch of different solutions, but each created more issues than they solved—including dice that would need to be the size of Michigan Stadium."
James found a solution, "there is some research around how the specific dimensions of a die correlate to the probability for it to land on each face. After brushing up on my spherical trigonometry I was able to write a program that helped brute-force our solution."
Gordie Garwood, Co-Founder, went on to say "Once we had the 3D models generated from the program, we had a friend print them. Then we rolled the dice 6,000+ times each to check the math, and it works!"
The resulting four irregular polyhedrons represent new shapes that when constructed of homogeneous material will land on each side in the prescribed ratio along a standard distribution curve. Gyld's healing potion dice have patents pending as Gyld develops an entire line of single-but-many dice for ultra-specific purposes in Dungeons and Dragons.
Gyld is launching a Kickstarter to fund the molds and development of the first run of dice.
Media Contact
Al McWilliams, Gyld, 1 7342725956, [email protected], https://shop.gylded.com
SOURCE Gyld
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